New-signed RCA recording artist William Singe will be headlining the Skyway Theatre this Sunday.
Singe has a massive online fanbase, over 3 million Facebook followers and 250+ million YouTube views. Forbes called Singe as one of the “5 R&B Artists to Look Out For in 2017.”

Opening will be one of the fastest rising YouTube star, Alex Aiono. In addition to his massive Spotify and YouTube views, the Los Angeles-based Aiono artist also hosts two Radio Disney shows and will co-host the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards.

Valerie June is headlining the Cedar Cultural Center this Wednesday ... we previously saw her at Rock the Garden 2014 and described her as, “With Medusa-like hair and banjo-plucking skills, she declared, “We’re going to send the rain away” and did so, appropriately during ‘Rain Dance.’ Blues classic ‘Rollin and Tumblin’ was segued into her own ‘Workin’ Woman Blues’ and the gospel-flavored ‘This World’ ended the set, perfectly setting the table for the day ahead.”

Australian duo Oh Pep! (the “oh” stands for Olivia Hally and the “pep” is for Pepita Emmerichs) will open. The last time we saw Liv and Pep in July 2016, they were very talkative about how they met and how wonderful their friendship and musical partnership has evolved: “Part of the fun of their show is how much Liv and Pepi like to tell their stories. They had met in at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in 2009 as they had shared a passionate love for music (in the case of Liv: secretly country music fan). By the time they had talked on the phone, which, oddly, Liv took down notes, they had become BFF (best friends forever).”

Although the name Pop Etc might not ring a bell, you might know them as The Morning Benders. Derek wrote about the band: “Since 2005, founder/frontman Chris Chu and friends (drummer Julian Harmon, bassist Tim Or
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Liverpool’s Banners, with Utah’s The Moth and the Flame, and California’s Pop Etc, will be on tour as part of the SiriusXM Presents Alt Nation Advanced Placement Tour. This is Banners’ very first USA tour, and it’s kicking
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On their brief set, TMTF played tracks from their debut 2011 album and also some tracks from their Ampersand (&) EP, including "Sorry" and "Wishing Well".
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The SiriusXM’s “Alt Nation’s Advanced Placement Tour”, featuring Pop Etc, Banners, and The Moth & The Flame, just started their tour at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis last night (February 29th).

Doors to the venue was supposed to be opened at 7pm, but the three bands were all still doing soundchecks while fans lined up outside the entrance for about 40 minutes. Since it’s the first night of the SiriusXM-sponsored tour, we figured the bands and tour managers were all still figuring out scheduling and adapting to the rough touring life.

Singing in front of a giant upside-down ampersand looked really cool, especially with the way the lights would change with the songs, and the sign also doubled as the band’s icon (you instantly recognize it as part of the branding for The Moth & the Flame).

The Moth & the Flame’s latest is called Young & Unafraid, and they seemed pretty excited to play some new tracks. For their latest single, a break-up song called “Empire & the Sun”, singer Brandon Robbins explained that it was “probably the most emo song we’ve ever written... so prepared to be ‘emoed’!”

Of course, the song that got the best response from the audience was for the title track of Young & Unafraid, which started off with a great acoustic guitar intro, but leading into a non-stop youth anthem that had their fans singing along.

Banners

Liverpool’s Banners traveled the most distance to be with us for the tour, and singer Michael Nelson made it known that his band spent 14 hours in a plane. It’s also Nelson’s first time in the USA, so he’s making the most of it, taking in everything North America has to offer. In addition to acknowledging just how massive the US is, he also mentioned that he saw American flags everywhere! If you live here, you barely notice these things.

Banners had a full band (keys, guitars, bass, drums) and they played a solid, high energy 40-minute set. Although the band is quite new (just recently only released his debut EP in January 2016), hearing and seeing how fans were interacting with the band, we’re pretty sure Banners will be playing bigger and better venues in the future.

Key singles like “Ghosts”, “Start A Riot” and “Gold Dust” went over incredibly well with the audience.

As with all the bands on this bill, we felt they all could be headliners. With that said, the last band to take the stage was Berkeley’s Pop Etc (previously known as The Morning Benders). Again, we wrote about the Morning Benders in 2008, right about the time they went on tour with The Kooks, Death Cab for Cutie, and Ra Ra Riot.

The trio (brothers Chris & Jon Chu, and Julian Harmon) are currently touring in support of their latest album Souvenir. Singer Chris Chu mentioned that they’ve played it all (large sized venues with The Wombats for example), but they were really comfortable with a smaller club size of the Triple Rock Social Club.

As previously mentioned with the ‘first night of the tour’ problem, the band ran into some “cables” problems after “Your Heart Is a Weapon” and prior to their Tears for Fears cover song “Mad World” (which sounded more in the upbeat/pop-friendly Pop Etc-styling than the slower/depressing version by Gary Jules). Although Chris thought his “We got all new cables” joke was funny, I honest thought their unintentional “World” block of “I Wanted To Change The World But The World Changed Me”, “Mad World”, and “Backwards World” was the funniest. If they would only cover Inspiral Carpets’ “Two Worlds Collide”, that would be over the top.

After thanking the crowd for staying late on a Monday night, the band finished their set with “Running in Circles”, which is perhaps the highlight of the show. Everyone was hand-clapping to the song and did a last-ditch effort to dance to Pop Etc.

If you love Alt Nation, you definitely need to check out the SiriusXM’s “Alt Nation’s Advanced Placement Tour”, featuring Pop Etc, Banners, and The Moth & The Flame. The three bands are in Chicago tonight.

On the other hand, The Morning Benders' (MySpace) 100% totally free album of cover songs, aptly titled The Bedroom Covers (download it here), is a somewhat different creature--equally as relaxing, but much less alt-country and much
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Liverpool’s Banners, with Utah’s The Moth and the Flame, and California’s Pop Etc, will be on tour as part of the SiriusXM Presents Alt Nation Advanced Placement Tour. This is Banners’ very first USA tour, and it’s kicking off in Minneapolis on February 29th.

The last time we saw The Moth and the Flame, they opened up for Placebo at Mill City Night in October 2014... but we’ve been writing and covering them since 2012.

Although the name Pop Etc might not ring a bell, you might know them as The Morning Benders. Derek wrote about the band: “Since 2005, founder/frontman Chris Chu and friends (drummer Julian Harmon, bassist Tim Or, and guitarist/organist Joe Ferrell, all fellow alums of UC Berkeley) have been producing upbeat, bouncy guitar-pop with a sunny Californian sound.” (read more at weheartmusic.com). Pop Etc’s new album Souvenir is out now.

I first heard of them when I read that Escape the Fate's new singer Craig Mabbitt was originally in it. I'm a huge fan of his vocals and lyrics, along with Escape the Fate and the Word Alive so I was excited to hear more of his work.
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Miss May I was the only American band on the bill last night. They are a melodic hardcore band from Ohio that has toured with bands such as Killswitch Engage, Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine. I saw these guys this past February
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The last time we heard about Blessthefall was that they were releasing To Those Left Behind on September 18, 2015, via Fearless Records. The band, having been one of the headliners at Vans Warped Tour will be back in the state for their “Drop the Gloves” tour.

Joining the the Arizona-based metalcore band will be Miss May I (who were recently in Minneapolis for the Noise Presents: Ire Tour - despite the fact that they are not Australian), The Plot In You, Sirens and Sailors, and A War Within.

More recently, the massive vault of vintage Springsteen recordings was opened, beginning with a 2012 performance at the Apollo in NYC, originally broadcast on Sirius XM, and now a radio simulcast show from Cleveland in 1978, taken
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Baby, we were born to tour... The boss, Bruce Springsteen, and his The E Street Band, is Minnesota. As usual with these stadium shows, ticket prices goes up to the $150 range (pre-taxes and fees).
Ticket prices too high? No worries, you can always download his official live recordings directly at live.brucespringsteen.net ... a profitable move on his part for steady income.